Craig comes to visit

Kent's little brother, Craig, just graduated Dental school- as you saw from a previous post. While he is waiting for his license to come through, he decided to come shadow Kent for a week in the clinic. I think they had a lot of fun together. Maybe enough fun to move up here someday, huh? hint hint

Dance Recital

Ella loves to dance, but hates to have to go to dance class. I think she hates to have her day interrupted to get dressed to go rehearse. She was very excited for the night they "go on the big stage." She did a great job, I was so proud of her. At dress rehearsal she slipped on stage in her tap shoes and my heart stopped. Ella hopped right back up, her eyes found me in the audience and she quickly said, "I'm okay, mom." and kept right on going. That incident could have gone either way- I'm glad she was confident enough to keep dancing. A few minutes later, I was walking up the steps in the audience and I fell down! Like daughter- like mother. I was really embarrassed but I figured if Ella can brush it off on stage, I can brush it off too.

This picture is blurry but I had to post it since she is looking at Kent in the camera

This is Ella receiving her dance certificate

Bowling Party

After the drama camp performance, Ethan was invited to a bowling birthday party.

While Ethan was at the party, Annie, Ella and I (and Cannon) were a few lanes down bowling while we waited.

Drama Camp

I know drama camp was the first week of summer but here are some pictures of the performance. The show was "Cinderella" and it was adorable. I am so glad Ethan was able to be a part of this fun week.
Ethan- green shorts, front and center!

My summer vacation...so far...

My parents came up with my niece, Jessica to help drive me down to Utah for a visit. I was up in Northern Utah visiting with my family for the first part of the week and then Kent flew down and we spent the weekend in Alpine staying with his family. Kent flew back home while my parents drove my kids and me home. My sister and her kids drove up too! While they were here we went to Leavenworth for a couple days and then drove to Seattle 26 hours- which we fit a week's worth of activities into. We came back to Sunnyside last Saturday night and my family has been helping me organize, rearrange, decorate, move furniture, hang curtains, and made delicious meals. We've gone to the occasional movie and stopped in at a quaint ice cream shop for lunch. It has been such a wonderful whirlwind!

Leavenworth

Camille let Jessica stay with us (for 2 weeks!!) in Sunnyside while everyone else went home. It was so fun to have her helping and playing and sleep-overs on the couch and just plain bonding with us. We love our Jessica.

Girls Girls Girls

What a fun family full of beautiful girls! The first time I took pictures for this family was of the two older sisters for the baby shower of their upcoming twins sisters. Once the babies arrived I was able to take some newborn pictures of them. Last summer I was lucky enough to take their family pictures and now I was able to take their family pictures again. It's fun to watch them grow and a pleasure they trust me to capture these stages of their lives!

Empty Nesters Take Off!

My parents have been doing a lot of traveling since they returned from their mission. It has been so great to see pictures and hear the stories of all they are doing. They have spent their whole lives dedicated to their children. Even still, everything they do is motivated by their kids. I am happy to see my mom and dad taking trips with me, and my other siblings, but I am also very excited to see them taking trips with their own friends and with each other. I love seeing them having a good time and experiencing the joy they deserve. It makes my heart happy. I love you mom and dad! I can't wait until you get home from your current trip, because your next trip is with me!

Drama Camp

Every year the High School Drama Director and the High School drama students put on a week long drama camp for kids in elementary and middle school. The first day of camp they were supposed to come dressed as their favorite character. Of course we didn't plan anything until 10 o'clock on Sunday night- so this is what we came up with. Pretty clever, right?

The Revolving Door

Erin and I decided to get together to let the kids entertain each other. We thought it would help cut down the stress level- which it did- but not the noise level. While we were at my house, we counted over 13 kids. We had neighbors, the neighbor's little brother, another neighbor's older sister and older sister's friend, a new kid from around the corner and a cousin from Idaho! I tried corralling the little ones to the backyard, bribing them with fruit snacks. While I was doing so, Ethan said to me "Mom, how come Dad tells me I can't feed the whole neighborhood, but you can?!" Ethan and his friends stayed out front, playing basketball.

Cannon and Lilly weren't going to be left out- they, also, got to have a fun little play date.

I was lucky enough to get to hold the babies while Erin captured the fun on camera.

Just when Erin and I thought we couldn't possibly have any more kids show up, we saw even more little heads standing at the front door. It was so comical that we had to snap a picture of it.
After a few sessions of dress up, makeovers and all around mess making, we cleaned up to go on to the next fun thing. Brent and Erin just purchased a bounce house that they set up at Gary and Katie's house. As you can see from the pictures, they had a blast! Click on this picture to enlarge it- there are some great times you don't want to miss!

Ella Rocks

Ella has chosen to have a Rock Star birthday party this year. I plan on using posters as some of the decor at the party. Today Ella and I had fun dressing up and snapping shots to have blown up.